134 Tliirty-u'uiiJi Aunttol Meeting 



two species will take care of itself in a great measure, because 

 each is at its l)est under a different set of conditions, and will 

 seek those conditions. 



The game qualities of rainbows are so well understood by 

 anglers generally that little need be said on this point. Of 

 course I do not refer to tlie old and superannuated fellows 

 who are passing the evening of tlieir life in the quiet waters 

 of lakes, but to the lusty and vigorous young stock of the 

 pools and riflles and rapid waters of our larger rivers. 

 Doubtless many of the members of this society have read the 

 following from Jordan and Evermann's "American Food 

 and Game Fishes." If any of those present have read it, I 

 am sure you will l)e pleased to hear it again, and if any of 

 you have not, you have missed something good : 



In beauty of color, gracefulness of form and movement, sprightliness 

 wlien in the water, reckless dash with which it springs from the water 

 to meet the descending fly ere it strikes the surface, and the mad and 

 repeated leaps from the water when hooked, the rainbow trout must ever 

 hold a very high rank. The gamcst fish we have ever seen was a 16-inch 

 rainbow trout taken on a fly in a small spring branch tributary of Wil- 

 liamson River in Southern Oregon. It was in a broad and deep pool of 

 exceedingly clear water. As the angler from behind a clump of bushes 

 made the cast, the trout bounded from the water and met the fly in the 

 air a foot or more above the surface ; missing it he dropped upon the 

 water only to turn about and strike viciously a second time at the fly as 

 it touched the surface ; though he again missed the fly, the hook caught 

 him in the lower jaw from the outside, and then began a fight which 

 would delight the heart of any angler. His first effort was to reach the 

 bottom of the pool, then, doubling upon the line, he made three jumps 

 from the water in quick succession, clearing the surface in each instance 

 from one to four feet, and every time doing his utmost to free himself 

 from the hook by shaking his head as vigorously as a dog shakes a rat. 

 Then he would dash wildly about in the large pool, now trying the 

 opposite direction, and often striving to hide under one or the other of 

 the banks. It was easy to handle the fish when the dash was made up 

 or down stream or for the opposite side, l)ut when he turned about and 

 made a rush for the protection of the overhanging bank upon which the 

 angler stood, it was not easy to keep the line taut. Movements such as 

 these were frequently repeated and two more leaps were made. Rut 

 finally he was worn out after as honest a fight as trout ever made. 



The rainbow takes the fly so readily that there is no reason for resorting 

 to grasshoppers, salmon-eggs, or other bait. It is a fish whose gameness 

 will satisfy the most exacting of expert anglers and whose readiness to 

 take any proper lure will please the most impatient of inexperienced 

 amateurs. 



